In the last year, businesses have started using cloud-based applications from Google and other technology providers at an accelerated rate. While many organizations still have information that resides in on-premise systems, more and more important business information today is living in the cloud, in collaborative tools like Google Apps—now used by more than 3 million businesses—and services like Twitter. Starting today, Cloud Connect for the Google Search Appliance lets workers search across both on-premise and cloud-based content from a single search box, delivering more comprehensive results and improving productivity. We’ve also added a few other handy features that make it easier to collaborate and find information faster.
Cloud Connect displays relevant, personalized results from Google Docs and Google Sites alongside results from more traditional repositories, like file shares and content management systems. Easier access to collaborative documents, spreadsheets, presentations and sites with Cloud Connect speeds up how quickly coworkers can complete projects. Cloud Connect also lets users search content from Twitter, as well as blogs and industry websites via Google Site Search.
For organizations such as Delta Hotels and Avago that have already deployed both Google Apps and the Google Search Appliance, the Cloud Connect feature brings “universal search” to a new level, with more accessible business systems and content now spanning from cloud to ground.
People Search
This new version also helps foster faster collaboration between employees with the addition of People Search, which makes it easy to find experts and contact coworkers who are related to a search query, right from the search results page. For example, a search for “field marketing” would return a list of field marketing team members alongside other relevant content. Organizations can index personnel information like department, interests, expertise and location, and there’s an LDAP connector to help get People Search up and running quickly.
Dynamic Navigation and more
Our new Dynamic Navigation feature allows users to drill down into search results based on search modifiers for their queries, and Active-Active Mirroring improves reliability by spreading search traffic across multiple boxes. Dynamic Navigation was a top user request and we’re glad to be able to add it. In addition, the Search Appliance now supports Microsoft Sharepoint 2010 content without the need for additional connectors.
As you move your business to the cloud, the Google Search Appliance’s new features can be an important bridge between on-premise and cloud-based systems, while enhancing employee collaboration. You can learn more about this latest release at www.google.com/gsa.
2. Dead Sea Scrolls coming to your couch, thanks to Google
Google and the Israeli Antiquities Authority have teamed up to digitize the Dead Sea Scrolls and make the scans accessible to anyone with an Internet connection.
Google, of course, has been scanning books and documents for years as part of its partnership with libraries around the world. Several million dollars will now fund a special implementation of the technology, as the Dead Sea fragments will all be scanned using a NASA-developed imaging system. The scans will be hosted by Google, which will pair them with translation tools.
Project results should be online with months, though the complete set of scrolls will take years to digitize.
At a press briefing in Israel, the IAA's Pnina Shor talked about how the Google deal will help preserve the scrolls. "From the minute all of this will go online there will be no need to expose the scrolls anymore, and anyone in his office or (on) his couch will be able to see it," she said—though we do have to wonder how many couch potatoes are really itching to read The War Scroll off its actual parchment.
Google and the Israeli Antiquities Authority have teamed up to digitize the Dead Sea Scrolls and make the scans accessible to anyone with an Internet connection.
Google, of course, has been scanning books and documents for years as part of its partnership with libraries around the world. Several million dollars will now fund a special implementation of the technology, as the Dead Sea fragments will all be scanned using a NASA-developed imaging system. The scans will be hosted by Google, which will pair them with translation tools.
Project results should be online with months, though the complete set of scrolls will take years to digitize.
At a press briefing in Israel, the IAA's Pnina Shor talked about how the Google deal will help preserve the scrolls. "From the minute all of this will go online there will be no need to expose the scrolls anymore, and anyone in his office or (on) his couch will be able to see it," she said—though we do have to wonder how many couch potatoes are really itching to read The War Scroll off its actual parchment.
3. Popular Facebook apps found to be collecting, selling user info
If you use Facebook but don't want your personal information leaked all over the Web, you had better make sure you don't use any of Facebook's most popular apps. According to an investigation by theWall Street Journal, "tens of millions" of apps on Facebook transmit varying amounts of identifying information to their own personal ad servers, even in cases when users' profiles were set to completely private.
On the most benign level, many Facebook apps gather a user's Facebook ID if that user installs the app on his or her profile. The ID itself doesn't necessarily give anyone access to a user's protected profile, though if the person in question has a public profile, then all of that information could be (and undoubtedly is being) scraped.
For other apps, however, the data collection apparently doesn't stop at a user's ID. The WSJ claims that all of the 10 most popular apps collect some form of user data, and three of them—yes, Farmville included—also transmit personal information about a user's friends to outside servers. One company, RapLeaf Inc., was found to be linking Facebook ID information with its own database of users that it cross-checks from other parts of the Internet. The company collects this information through several of its apps, including those made by LOLapps and the Family Tree application, then sells the information to at least 12 other ad firms.
Facebook has already disabled the accounts for some applications and has taken action in the past to limit RapLeaf's data collection. Still, the discovery draws further attention to an ongoing problem for Facebook: user privacy. Even when users try to be fastidious in protecting their data on the social networking site, there always seems to be an opening that lets more information out than users want. Most Facebook apps are written by independent developers or small companies, though, and it's not always clear whether the info being collected is even intentional.
Facebook takes a tough stance against apps that violate its terms, which limit what kind of data developers can collect. "Our technical systems have always been complemented by strong policy enforcement, and we will continue to rely on both to keep people in control of their information," a Facebook spokesperson told theJournal. The company didn't specify which apps it took action against, but did say that it has "taken immediate action to disable all applications that violate our terms."
4. WikiLeaks didn't blow US military's Afghan intel sources
We're still waiting for WikiLeaks to make good on its pledge to reveal hundreds of thousands of US military documents on the Iraq war. But if the past is any prologue, the impact of the leak might be less severe than the military fears. Its last big military document dump didn't botch the US's intelligence sources in Afghanistan, according to Defense Secretary Robert Gates.
Gates wrote to Carl Levin, the chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, that a preliminary Pentagon review "has not revealed any sensitive intelligence sources and methods compromised" by WikiLeaks' July release of 77,000 "tactical" military reports from Afghanistan. Gates penned his August 16 letter a few weeks after Admiral Michael Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, accused the anti-secrecy organization of endangering the lives of US troops and the Afghan civilians who work with them. You can read Gates' full letter, first reported by Reuters and the New York Times, on Scribd.
But the military's continued access to its Afghan intelligence sources "in no way discounts the risk to national security" from WikiLeaks, Gates added, which he said was likely to be "significant." In a hint of what's to come from the impending Iraq disclosures, Gates wrote that the Defense Department is developing unspecified "courses of action" to deal with "additional military documents [that] may be disclosed by WikiLeaks."
As our sister blog Threat Level first reported, the Pentagon has assembled a huge 120-person team to go through its "Significant Activities" database to predetermine what Iraq documents WikiLeaks might release. The material in the database, which the Pentagon believes WikiLeaks has accessed, covers insurgent attacks and US responses.
Much as we're hitting refresh in anticipation of the Iraq release, WikiLeaks' website is still down. ("Undergoing scheduled maintenance," it explains.) Threat Level reported last month that at least six WikiLeaks staffers have recently resigned, upset by the rapidity with which founder Julian Assange wants the Iraq documents released or the pre-release screenings provided to select media outlets. Some of those staffers considered an October 18 release deadline—today—inadequate for withholding the names of Iraqis who aided US troops, a priority for the group after it saw widespread criticism for releasing the names of Afghans who did the same thing.
Gates wrote to Levin that he took "very seriously" reported threats from the Taliban to retaliate against those Afghans. CNN, citing an anonymous senior NATO source, reports that no Afghans named in WikiLeaks' documents has required additional US military protection.
Check out Gates' letter on Scribd. You can also go here to read the July letter Levin sent to Gates about WikiLeaks that prompted the defense secretary's assessment.
5. Fan-made Duke 3D Unreal Engine 3 update is now officially licensed
Duke Nukem is a big name in gaming; any story we write about the upcoming Duke Nukem Forever is almost sure to be one of the week's most popular. The interest in the character and the game has never been higher, and the reason is simple: Duke Nukem 3D was a classic in the world of PC (and now console) gaming. One fan has taken his love of the game to the next level by beginning the process of updating the experience with the Unreal Engine 3, but his story is a unique one. You see, he has been given a non-commercial license to update—and then release—his version of the game.
6. Week in Microsoft: all WinPhone 7, all the time
Windows Phone 7 dominated Microsoft news this week , and we had plenty of coverage of the announcement and the new handsets. But benchmarking Windows browsers and watching Microsoft troll OpenOffice users also generated plenty of interest. Welcome to the week in Microsoft.
7. Three Apps That Keep Linux Squeaky Clean
Have you cleaned up your Linux installation lately? On its face, that question might wrongly mark me as a Linux newbie, much like a Linux newcomer asking about antivirus and antimalware software. But I am far from being a newbie to Linux. That said, three program packages designed to clean out your Linux dustbins can keep your OS working like new. I admit that sounds like a sales pitch hawking some must-have maintenance tool for Microsoft Windows. But BleachBit, GtkOrphan and Startup Manager can give you more control over how your Linux distro behaves.
No comments:
Post a Comment